Tux Racer
released on Feb 28, 2000
Tux Racer is a 2000 open-source winter sports racing video game starring the Linux mascot, Tux the penguin. It was originally developed by Jasmin Patry as a computer graphics project in a Canadian university.
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Je pense sincèrement que je peux mourir de nostalgie juste en pensant 1 seule seconde a ce jeu
pretty solid
There Is A Demon That Lives Inside My Computer And Their Name Is "systemd". If You Have Recieved This Message, I Strongly Urge You To Send Assistance As Soon As You Possibly Can. Thank You.
Shouts to all the legends who played this in the early 2000s.
Practically the best game in the penguin-racing genre. Graphics and music create a very comfy atmosphere. The gameplay and the controls are very simple, but the tracks get increasingly more complex, which makes this game easy to get into, but hard to master. It sort of does that thing some Sonic games do, where it starts introducing several different paths per track, but they all intertwine and aren't clearly designated. And the game doesn't steer you towards one or the other, but instead allows you to choose organically. This creates a feeling of a cohesive world that we just happen to inhabit, rather than a video game level that was designed specifically for the player.
If this game was remade with more content, more realistic physics and destructible environments, it would be perfect. Also I'd love to see ports for handheld consoles.
Practically the best game in the penguin-racing genre. Graphics and music create a very comfy atmosphere. The gameplay and the controls are very simple, but the tracks get increasingly more complex, which makes this game easy to get into, but hard to master. It sort of does that thing some Sonic games do, where it starts introducing several different paths per track, but they all intertwine and aren't clearly designated. And the game doesn't steer you towards one or the other, but instead allows you to choose organically. This creates a feeling of a cohesive world that we just happen to inhabit, rather than a video game level that was designed specifically for the player.
If this game was remade with more content, more realistic physics and destructible environments, it would be perfect. Also I'd love to see ports for handheld consoles.
It’s a little baffling that despite being the symbol of open source software and even bigger than the kernel itself, It took a solid 9 years for someone to develop an appropriately Open Source freeware game starring Tux. Even more surprising, but cool, is that the iconic bird’s first game was simply a project the developer had to make for his computer graphics course. In an astonishing three days.
Tux Racer is not a racer in the traditional sense, but instead a down hill slope game more inline with 1080 snowboarding and SSX.
Before I continue, I highly recommend playing this with a controller, as the default arrow keys are very uncomfortable after a few minutes.
You have two modes of play, Cup and Practice.
I highly recommend playing each course in the practice mode first, and I’ll go even further and say that if you feel like playing this casually every so often to only dive into this mode. Each slope is very well designed, being built around Tux’s momentum, many branches in them can be accessed via pulling back hard on the joy stick or being just fast enough to soar across the gap.
The game communicates to you which surfaces slow you down and speed you up. Dirt slows you to a crawl, Snow makes you moderately fast, and Ice makes you speedy to the point of turning being quite difficult. This makes each run of a track a little different each time, with some slopes on the 2nd track needing you to glide a bit over dirt to slow your momentum or risk overshooting and missing fish on a small cliff, or 3rd to last track punishing you for just going straight and trapping you in a wall, with no momentum to get you out, it’s nice to see the initial five tracks for the project, and the 8 added ones, keep the solid fundamentals.
If you want a challenge, the cup mode does provide it, but the time requirements are far to stingy for it to be fun or fair, Many of the fish you need to collect you need to be pixel perfect to get, with extremely specific areas of each track requiring precise and exact amounts of momentum that most will never consider. If the time requirements were dropped, I would definitely recommend checking this out. But as is, it’s a poor antithesis to the great track design you can enjoy at what ever pace in the practice mode.
Graphically the game looks quite good for something made in three days. All of the assets blend wonderfully and the photo of the mountains in the background help give the game a relaxing feel, there’s a really impressive snow trail effect you’ll see when behind Tux as his rotund form slides down each slope, and the Ice in particular has a nice glossy sheen that helps convey how it makes the bird slide faster.
Tux himself looks quite good. His smooth glossy plastic look matching his official iconic Raster art. His flippers do oddly bend inwards when turning, but it’s not enough to be a major distraction.
While IGDB only lists Linux for platforms, this will run on Windows and Mac machines. I tested this on my Kubuntu desktop, Windows desktop, and 2011 Macbook pro running high sierra and got a rock solid 60 fps on all three. Which is to be expected from a freeware game, but the basics should always be hit, so it’s nice to see. You will have to open the config file in notepad to change your settings, but changing your resolution will not break anything. I ran this at 1080 and 800p with zero issues.
The music is memorable because there is only three tracks. The title theme is a nice mix of chimes and flutes, and race 1’s trumpets, chimes and xylophones give a good sense of pace while also feeling very relaxing as the portly bird slides down the slopes all by himself. Helping convey it’s just you and the routes, and you can take as much time as you need.
Tux Racer would have probably fallen by the wayside if any original character made for the game was used, hell, the game and source code probably would have been discarded. As a piece of Linux history it’s an endearing reminder to the non linux savvy public that games can work on the kernel thanks to the decision of a few creative students, and as a video game it’s a relaxing downhill racer that feels rewarding every time you’ll go back. Everyone has that one game they go back to and casually play for a few hours at random points, and Tux racer is a game that fits that vibe for everyone.
8/10.
Tux Racer is not a racer in the traditional sense, but instead a down hill slope game more inline with 1080 snowboarding and SSX.
Before I continue, I highly recommend playing this with a controller, as the default arrow keys are very uncomfortable after a few minutes.
You have two modes of play, Cup and Practice.
I highly recommend playing each course in the practice mode first, and I’ll go even further and say that if you feel like playing this casually every so often to only dive into this mode. Each slope is very well designed, being built around Tux’s momentum, many branches in them can be accessed via pulling back hard on the joy stick or being just fast enough to soar across the gap.
The game communicates to you which surfaces slow you down and speed you up. Dirt slows you to a crawl, Snow makes you moderately fast, and Ice makes you speedy to the point of turning being quite difficult. This makes each run of a track a little different each time, with some slopes on the 2nd track needing you to glide a bit over dirt to slow your momentum or risk overshooting and missing fish on a small cliff, or 3rd to last track punishing you for just going straight and trapping you in a wall, with no momentum to get you out, it’s nice to see the initial five tracks for the project, and the 8 added ones, keep the solid fundamentals.
If you want a challenge, the cup mode does provide it, but the time requirements are far to stingy for it to be fun or fair, Many of the fish you need to collect you need to be pixel perfect to get, with extremely specific areas of each track requiring precise and exact amounts of momentum that most will never consider. If the time requirements were dropped, I would definitely recommend checking this out. But as is, it’s a poor antithesis to the great track design you can enjoy at what ever pace in the practice mode.
Graphically the game looks quite good for something made in three days. All of the assets blend wonderfully and the photo of the mountains in the background help give the game a relaxing feel, there’s a really impressive snow trail effect you’ll see when behind Tux as his rotund form slides down each slope, and the Ice in particular has a nice glossy sheen that helps convey how it makes the bird slide faster.
Tux himself looks quite good. His smooth glossy plastic look matching his official iconic Raster art. His flippers do oddly bend inwards when turning, but it’s not enough to be a major distraction.
While IGDB only lists Linux for platforms, this will run on Windows and Mac machines. I tested this on my Kubuntu desktop, Windows desktop, and 2011 Macbook pro running high sierra and got a rock solid 60 fps on all three. Which is to be expected from a freeware game, but the basics should always be hit, so it’s nice to see. You will have to open the config file in notepad to change your settings, but changing your resolution will not break anything. I ran this at 1080 and 800p with zero issues.
The music is memorable because there is only three tracks. The title theme is a nice mix of chimes and flutes, and race 1’s trumpets, chimes and xylophones give a good sense of pace while also feeling very relaxing as the portly bird slides down the slopes all by himself. Helping convey it’s just you and the routes, and you can take as much time as you need.
Tux Racer would have probably fallen by the wayside if any original character made for the game was used, hell, the game and source code probably would have been discarded. As a piece of Linux history it’s an endearing reminder to the non linux savvy public that games can work on the kernel thanks to the decision of a few creative students, and as a video game it’s a relaxing downhill racer that feels rewarding every time you’ll go back. Everyone has that one game they go back to and casually play for a few hours at random points, and Tux racer is a game that fits that vibe for everyone.
8/10.